Hospital at centre of South Korea's MERS suspends services; 7 new cases

SEOUL, June 14 (Reuters) - A South Korean hospital suspended
most services on Sunday after being identified as the epicentre
of the spread of a deadly respiratory disease that has killed 15
people since being diagnosed in the country nearly four weeks
ago.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called an emergency
meeting for Tuesday on South Korea's "large and complex"
outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the biggest
outside Saudi Arabia, where it was first identified in humans in
2012.

MERS was diagnosed in South Korea on May 20 in a businessman
who had returned from a trip to the Middle East and has spread
through hospitals.

It has stirred fears of a repeat of a 2002-2003 outbreak of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which began in China
and killed about 800 people globally.

South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new cases on
Sunday, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died, an
official in Busan city said.

The people who died were all elderly or people with existing
ailments.

The Samsung Medical Center, a prominent hospital in the
capital, said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and
would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS after more
than 70 cases were traced to it.

Its tally has surpassed the number at a hospital in
Pyeongtaek, where the first patient sought treatment.

Among the cases at the Samsung Medical Center was an
emergency ward orderly who worked for days after developing
symptoms, coming into contact with more than 200 people, the
hospital said.

"We apologise for causing great concern as Samsung Medical
Center became the centre of the spread of MERS," the hospital's
president, Song Jae-Hoon, told a news conference.

"This is entirely our responsibility and failing as we did
not properly manage emergency-room staff."

The orderly is believed to have picked up the virus from an
infected person who waited three days in different parts of the
emergency ward, with nearly 900 staff, patients and visitors
coming and going.

All of South Korea's cases are believed to be linked to
hospitals or related services and have been traced back to the
businessman who returned from the Middle East.

The WHO said on Saturday it saw no sign the disease was
spreading in the community and there was also no indication the
virus in South Korea was mutating into one more easily passed
between people.

But it said South Korea should anticipate more cases and
recommended stepped up disease control and prevention measures.

MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the
one that caused SARS. There is no cure or vaccine.

Authorities have sealed off at least two other hospitals
with patients and medical workers inside, and about 4,856 people
are in quarantine, either at home or in medical facilities.
(Additional reporting by Seungyun Oh and Ju-min Park; Editing
by Robert Birsel)